Travelogue: Honor our veterans at Arlington National Cemetery

Weekly travel rail, with a look at Arlington, how to spend a night at Robert DeNiro's place, haggling tips and more.

American Tourist: Arlington National Cemetery

What is it: Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., is a military cemetery established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Anna Custis Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington. The cemetery is directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., near The Pentagon. More than 290,000 people are buried in Arlington. Veterans and military casualties from every one of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, from the American Revolution through the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900. Arlington House (Custis-Lee Mansion) and its grounds are administered by the National Park Service as a memorial to Lee.

Popular attraction: The Tomb of the Unknowns – aka the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington. It was initially named the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but other unknown servicemen were later buried there, and it became known as the Tomb of the Unknowns, though it has never been officially named. The tomb is perpetually guarded by the U.S. Army. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment began guarding the tomb April 6, 1948.

Hours: Opens at 8 a.m. every day of the year. From April 1 to Sept. 30 the cemetery closes at 7 p.m.; the other six months it closes at 5 p.m.

Price: The cemetery is free. Parking is $1.25 an hour for the first three hours, and $2 per hour thereafter.

Want to impress your friends and co-workers by saying you spent the night at Robert DeNiro’s or Gloria Estefan’s pad? Check out the Greenwich Hotel in Manhattan or the Costa d'Este Beach Resort in June in Vero Beach, Fla. DeNiro co-owns the luxury New York hotel, which opened April 1, and Estefan is opening the Costa in June (she also owns the Cardozo Hotel in Miami Beach). Check out DeNiro's hotel online at http://greenwichhotelny.com.

Good to Know

EOS Airlines, an all business-class carrier that operated flights from New York City's Kennedy Airport to London Stansted Airport, announced that it would cease all operations effective April 28 and file for bankruptcy. British Airways and Silverjet have announced re-accomodation plans for Eos Airlines passengers. (Wikitravel.org)

Fun Facts

- The huge limestone spires of the Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia is best viewed early in the morning or around sunset when the low angle of the sun enhances the colors and contrasts of the rock formations. (Wikitravel.org)

- Miyake, a bar in Palo Alto, Calif., that is popular with students at nearby Stanford University, is known for its Sake Bomb (shot of sake dropped into a glass of beer and chugged). (Wikitravel.org)

Travel Tip: How to Haggle, part I

Haggling (bargaining) is common in many countries. If you don't haggle, it is highly likely that you will get ripped off, because vendors expect a bit of haggling and state their prices higher than what they expect to receive. Some points to keep in mind:

- Try to have a rough understanding of the item's value before you start haggling. For example, government-run craft shops and hotel gift shops generally have (high) fixed prices that will at least give you an upper boundary.

- Shop owners sometimes start with an insanely high price. This may put you off if you're not from a haggling culture, but realize that some vendors can be (and expect to be) haggled down to a small fraction of their original stated price. So even if the initial offer seems ridiculous, haggling may still be worthwhile; keep to your budget and state your price.

- Just as vendors often start with absurdly high prices, you can do an equivalent trick by stating a price that is much lower than what you expect to pay in the end. This gives you some negotiating room.

- If the vendor's initial offer is too high by far, then feel free to laugh or show astonishment in some way. This is usually expected and will quickly indicate to the vendor that you are aware of the item's real value - even if you are not.

- For prospective buyers, a common move is to bid the vendor farewell and start walking off. You will most certainly get at least two offers, each lower than the previous. Alternatively, the vendor may ask, "How much do you want this?" (or words to that effect), which acknowledges the fact that they realize a potential sale is walking out of the door.

- If there are two or more of you, you can wax theatrical. He wants the item, but she holds the purse strings and won't pay the price, or whatever. (Wikitravel.org)

Talk Like a Local: In Portuguese

What is your name? (literally "How are you called?")

- Como se chama? (KOH-moh se SHA-ma?)

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